Bob Young, Chairman of the Board for Red Hat has written

an open letter to the Community, in response to some of the

recent criticism of Red Hat 7. If you've been following these

stories at all, or the Linux scene, this is worth checking out.

Microsoft Corp. opened a new technology center that will allow online retailers and other dot-coms to design and test a variety of tools. The center will provide a demonstration platform for companies trying to decide between Microsoft-Intel offerings and competing strategies from Sun Microsystems, Oracle and Linux.

One day after IBM Corp. gave it some cash, TurboLinux Inc. said it would support Big Blue's entire embattled eServer line.

But this is not just any old staid Linux distribution. For one thing, it seems like the developers have a lot of fun, starting with the name of the product. The MNU part of the name MNU/Linux comes from the sound made when you touch a penguin.

IBM Japan Ltd.'s announcement that it will officially support the Linux OS on all of its servers helped trigger the move. Leading vendors, which had managed to handle Linux to some extent, began to follow IBM seriously after this announcement.

TurboLinux is expected to announce a further $30 million in funding from IBM, Intel and others amid a drawn-out plan to go public, sources familiar with the company's plans said.

Desktop applications software vendor Corel said its commitment to Linux remains strong despite last week's $135m investment by Microsoft, the Linux community's biggest competitor.

The recent surge in popularity of the Linux operating system in Third World countries like India is a sign that Linux is here to stay.

Well, Red Hat, you can't have it both ways. You can be the bleeding-edge hacker distribution, or you can be the bulletproof business distribution. You can't be both, and any attempt to do so will hurt not just you but Linux in general.

The demand for Unix in Melbourne, Australia is on the move upwards. Over the last 12 months the market has started to witness a distinct growth in the need for Unix across the board, with Linux and FreeBSD featuring heavily.